Victor Hernandez Denies Calling Greg Abbott’s Wife a Prop

Lubbock City Councilman Victor Hernandez is denying to the Texas Tribune that he called Attorney General Greg Abbott's wife a "prop" last Wednesday at a press conference. As I wrote yesterday, all of this started last Tuesday when Abbott campaigned through Lubbock at the Jimenez Bakery. Hernandez held a press conference the following day accusing Abbott of "pinata politics" and said Abbott "“came into our house uninvited, wanting to somehow give the illusion that the Lubbock County Hispanic Community is supportive.”

PJ Media's Bryan Preston reported that Hernandez not only accused Abbott of using the bakery as a political prop, but also his own wife.

It turns out that Mr. Hernandez’s behavior was even worse than reported. A source tells me that in addition to the screeds above, he launched a personal attack on Abbott’s family. Cecilia Abbott, the attorney general’s wife of 31 years, is Hispanic. A source tells me that Hernandez callously dismissed her as a “prop.”

Yesterday, the Texas Tribune had a story about the flap but did not have any comments from Hernandez. Today, the story evolved once again.

The Lubbock Democrat accused by Attorney General Greg Abbott of calling his wife a “prop” denies ever making that remark, and he urged the frontrunning Republican candidate for governor to distance himself from rhetoric he says is hurtful to Hispanics.

“I categorically deny having ever referred to Mrs. Abbott as a prop. I think that would have been improper,” said Victor Hernandez, a Democrat who serves on the Lubbock City Council. “They made a mistake.”

The Texas Tribune also reported that Hernandez continued with his thoughts on Republicans and how the Hispanic Community feels about some Republican comments.

Hernandez accused Republicans of trying to shift the focus away from divisive, anti-immigrant comments made in this primary election season.

“What they’re trying to do is redirect the attention to a falsehood on their part in order not to really address the issues that I raised,” Hernandez said. “They make no mention at all of the conduct they’ve been engaging in or the tactics that have been used.”

Hernandez said the 2014 GOP primaries, including the one going on right now in the rock-em-sock-em lieutenant governor’s race, have featured harsh rhetoric that is leaving potentially deep scars and long-lasting hurt feelings. (In at least one case, it has also drawn a rebuke from a prominent Hispanic Republican in the Legislature.).

The Lubbock city councilman also said Abbott’s recent description of drug cartel corruption in South Texas as similar to “Third World practices” fit into a pattern of strident talk that Hispanics are finding offensive.

Abbott has said he was speaking broadly about cartel corruption wherever it occurs and warned that those who deny its seeping into Texas are fooling themselves. (Politfact Texas last month got to the bottom of the remark and the fallout from it).

We will discuss this story more on the Monday edition of The Chad Hasty Show.